Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) Grant Program

Tate Gould, Program Officer US Department of Education

Legislative Background• Authorized in 2002 by the Education Sciences Reform Act

and the Educational Technical Assistance Act• The grants are cooperative agreements – a form of grant in

which the federal government has a more active involvement than in typical grants.

• 3 to 5 year awards of $1.5 to $9 million per State• November 2005: 14 SEAs awarded over $52 million• June 2007: 13 SEAs awarded over $62 million• April 2009: 27 SEAs awarded over $150 million• July 2009: 4th competition (FY09-ARRA) was announced

under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)

Goals of the ProgramThe purpose of this program is to provide grants to SEAs to enable such

agencies to design, develop, and implement statewide longitudinal data systems to efficiently and accurately manage, analyze, disaggregate, report, and use individual student data.

The long term goals of this program are to:1) identify successful instructional programs, facilitate use of research to

improve instruction2) determine whether graduates have knowledge and skills to succeed in

postsecondary education and the workforce3) simplify the processes used by state education agencies to make

educational data transparent through local, state, and federal reporting4) support informed decision-making at all levels of the education system5) permit the generation and use of accurate and timely data.

Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants: the principal education agencies of• 50 States• District of Columbia• Commonwealth of Puerto Rico• United States Virgin Islands• American Samoa• Guam• Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Grantee States

Grantee States2006• Alaska• Arkansas• California• Connecticut• Florida• Kentucky• Maryland• Michigan• Minnesota• Pennsylvania• Ohio• South Carolina• Tennessee• Wisconsin

2007• Arizona• Colorado• District of Columbia• Indiana• Kansas• Maine• Nebraska• Nevada• New Hampshire• North Carolina• Oregon• Utah• Virginia

2009• Arkansas• California• Connecticut• Florida• Georgia• Hawaii• Idaho• Illinois• Iowa• Kansas• Kentucky• Louisiana• Maryland• Massachusetts

• Michigan• Mississippi• Missouri• Montana• New York• North Dakota• Ohio• Oregon• Pennsylvania• Rhode Island• Texas• Washington• Wisconsin

Vehicles Used to Manage and Assist Grantees• Regular call updates with grantee project directors• Annual two day conference hosting at least two members

from each grantee’s project team• Personnel Exchange program• Longitudinal Data Systems presentations and optional

grantee meetings at two annual national data conferences (MIS Conference, STATS DC Conference)

• SLDS Grantee Listserv• Monthly “Webinar” discussions hosted by a grantee team for

all grantee recipients• LDS Share

Vehicles Used to Manage, Assist (cont’d)

• SLDS program website with links to presentations from relevant conferences, state web pages, and other related resources

• “Traveling Through Time” – a NCES’s Forum on Education Statistics handbook on developing, implementing, and using longitudinal data systems

• Technical assistance provided to grantee states through nongovernmental organizations (e.g., technical assistance provided in adopting XML data standards)

Successful Strategies for Developing SLDS Lessons Learned• “Not just an IT project”• “Communicate up and out” - Effective communications about

the project to stakeholders• “State managed, locally operated” - Formalized structures for

working closely with LEAs and other stakeholders on designing, testing, and using SLDS and its portals

• “Who’s in charge” - Organized governance structure to manage data ownership, decisions, and communications

Issues Identified through the Program

• FERPA – data access for organizations• State procurement issues with grant implementation – often

takes longer than originally planned• SEAs as facilitating organization – new role for state

collaboration• Sustainability at the state level – impact of state economy

Next Steps for SLDS

• Allow for effective e-Transcripts and reliable connections to early childhood, post-secondary and labor data

• Providing data access to research community and public stakeholders

• Rising interest among states to figure out how to build data structures for seamless transfers of student records across state lines

Appendix Slides

Contacts:

Tate GouldSLDS Grant Program Officer

National Center for Education Statistics

U.S. Department of Education(202) 219-7080

Tate.Gould@ed.gov

Emily AnthonySLDS Grant Program Officer

National Center for Education Statistics

U.S. Department of Education(202) 502-7495

Emily.Anthony@ed.gov

SLDS Website:http://nces.ed.gov/Programs/SLDS/